Raven: Blood Eye: Raven, Book 1

Random House presents the audiobook edition of
Raven: Blood Eye by Giles Kristian, read by Philip Stevens. The first book in a thrilling Viking trilogy that launched the career of acclaimed historical novelist Giles Kristian - who's now confronting the tumult and devastation of the English Civil War in
The Bleeding Land. For two years Osric has lived a simple life, though he is feared and shunned for his mysterious past and blood-red eye.

God of Vengeance: The Rise of Sigurd 1

Norway, AD 785. It began with the betrayal of a lord by a king.... King Gorm puts Jarl Harald's family to the sword but makes one fatal mistake - he fails to kill Harald's youngest son, Sigurd. His kin slain, his village seized and its people taken as slaves, Sigurd wonders if the gods have forsaken him. Hunted by powerful men, he is unsure who to trust, and yet he has a small band of loyal followers at his side.

The Serpent Sword: The Bernicia Chronicles, Book 1

Beobrand is compelled by his brother's almost-certain murder to embark on a quest for revenge in the war-ravaged kingdoms of Northumbria. The land is rife with danger, as warlords vie for supremacy and dominion. In the battles for control of the region, new oaths are made and broken, and loyalties are tested to the limits. With no patronage and no experience, Beobrand must form his own allegiances and learn to fight with sword and shield. Relentless in pursuit of his enemies, he faces challenges which transform him from a boy to a man.

Scourge of Wolves: Master of War, Book 5

Winter, 1361: Edward III has finally agreed a treaty with the captive French King, John II. In return for his freedom, John has ceded vast tracts of territory to the English. But the mercenary bands and belligerent lords will not give up their hard-won spoils to honour a defeated king's promises. As he battles to enforce Edward's claim, Thomas Blackstone, once again, will face the might of the French army on the field. But this time there will be no English army at his back.

Pendragon: A Novel of the Dark Age

Here is the beginning of a legend. Long before Camelot rose, a hundred years before the myth of King Arthur was half formed, at the start of the Red Century, the world was slipping into a dark age.... It is AD 367. In a frozen forest beyond Hadrian's Wall, six scouts of the Roman army are found murdered. For Lucanus, known as the Wolf and leader of elite unit called the Arcani, this chilling ritual killing is a sign of a greater threat. But to the Wolf the far north is a foreign land, a place where daemons and the old gods live on.

Dunstan: One Man Will Change the Fate of England

The year is 937. England is a nation divided, ruled by minor kings and Viking lords. Each vies for land and power. The Wessex king Æthelstan, grandson of Alfred the Great, is readying himself to throw a spear into the north. Behind him stands Dunstan, the man who will control the destiny of the next seven kings of England and the fate of an entire nation. Welcome to the original game for the English throne.

The Wolf of the North, Book 1

A chance encounter with an ancient and mysterious object awakens a latent gift, and Wulfric's life changes course. Against a backdrop of war, tragedy, and an enemy whose hatred for him knows no bounds, Wulfric will be forged from a young boy into the Wolf of the North. This is his tale.

Master of War

England, 1346. For Thomas Blackstone the choice is easy - dance on the end of a rope for a murder he did not commit, or join the king's invasion. As he fights his way across northern France, Blackstone learns the brutal lessons of war. Vastly outnumbered, Edward III's army will finally confront the armoured might of the French nobility on the field of Crécy. It is a battle that will change the history of warfare.

Gate of the Dead: Master of War, Book 3

Tuscany, 1358: Thomas Blackstone has built a formidable reputation in exile, fighting as a mercenary amid the ceaseless warring of Italy's City States. But when a dying man delivers a message recalling him to England, it seems to be a trap. Yet Blackstone cannot disobey and will brave the terrors of the High Alps in winter, face the Black Prince in tournament and submit to trial by combat. Every step of the way, he is shadowed by a notorious assassin with orders to dispatch him to hell....

Viper's Blood: Master of War, Book 4

England, 1346. For Thomas Blackstone the choice is easy - dance on the end of a rope for a murder he did not commit, or join the king's invasion. As he fights his way across Northern France, Blackstone learns the brutal lessons of war. Vastly outnumbered, Edward III's army will finally confront the armoured might of the French nobility on the field of Crécy. It is a battle that will change the history of warfare.

The Bleeding Land

England 1642: a nation divided. England is at war with itself. King Charles and Parliament each gather soldiers to their banners. Across the land men prepare to fight for their religious and political ideals. Civil war has begun; a family ripped asunder. The Rivers are landed gentry, and tradition dictates that their allegiance is to the King. Sir Francis' loyalty to the crown and his desire to protect his family will test them all. As the men march to war, so the women are left to defend their home against a ruthless enemy.

The Long Ships

Bengtsson's hero, Red Orm-canny - courageous and above all lucky - is only a boy when he is abducted from his Danish home by the Vikings and made to take his place at the oars of their dragon-prowed ships. Orm is then captured by the Moors in Spain, where he fights for the Caliph of Cordova. Escaping from captivity, Orm washes up in Ireland, where he marvels at those epicene creatures, the Christian monks, and from which he then moves on to play an ever more important part in the intrigues of the various Scandinavian kings and clans and dependencies.

Eagles in the Storm

The date is 15 AD. The German chieftain Arminius has been defeated, one of the lost Roman eagles recovered and thousands of German tribesmen slain. Yet these successes aren't nearly enough for senior centurion Lucius Tullus. Not until Arminius is dead, his old legion's eagle found and the enemy tribes completely vanquished will he rest. But Arminius - devious, fearless - is burning for revenge of his own.

Vindolanda

AD, 98. The bustling army base at Vindolanda lies on the northern frontier of Britannia and the entire Roman world. In just over 20 years' time, the Emperor Hadrian will build his famous wall. But for now, defences are weak as tribes rebel against Rome. It falls to Flavius Ferox, Briton and Roman centurion, to keep the peace. But it will take more than just a soldier's courage to survive life in Roman Britain.

The Last Kingdom: The Last Kingdom Series, Book 1

The first book in a brand-new series,
The Last Kingdom is set in England during the reign of King Alfred. Uhtred is an English boy, born into the aristocracy of ninth-century Northumbria. Orphaned at 10, he is captured and adopted by a Dane and taught the Viking ways. Yet Uhtred's fate is indissolubly bound up with Alfred, King of Wessex, who rules over the only English kingdom to survive the Danish assault. The struggle between the English and the Danes and the strife between christianity and paganism is the background to Uhtred's growing up.

You Die When You Die: West of West, Book 1

You can't change your fate - so throw yourself into battle, because you'll end the day either a hero or drinking mead in the halls of the gods. That's what Finn's tribe believe. But Finn wants to live. When his settlement is massacred by a hostile tribe, Finn plus several friends and rivals must make their escape across a brutal, unfamiliar landscape, and to survive, Finn will fight harder than he's ever fought before.

Blood's Game

Winter, 1670. Holcroft Blood has entered the employ of the powerful Duke of Buckingham. It is here that his education really begins. With a gift for numbers, Holcroft soon proves invaluable to the Duke, but when he's pushed into a betrayal he risks everything for revenge. His father, Colonel Thomas Blood, has fallen on hard times. When he's asked to commit treason by stealing the crown jewels, he puts himself and his family in a dangerous situation.

Under the Eagle: Eagles of the Empire, Book 1

The first novel in Simon Scarrow's bestselling Roman series. It is 42 AD, and Quintus Licinius Cato has just arrived in Germany as a new recruit to the Second Legion, the toughest in the Roman army. If adjusting to the rigours of military life isn't difficult enough for the bookish young man, he also has to contend with the disgust of his colleagues when, because of his imperial connections, he is appointed a rank above them.

Betrayal: The Centurions I

Rome, AD 68. Nero has committed suicide. One hundred years of imperial rule by the descendants of Julius Caesar has ended, and chaos rules. His successor, Galba, dismisses the incorruptible Germans of the Imperial Bodyguard for the crime of loyalty to the dead emperor. Ordering them back to their homeland, he releases a Batavi officer from a Roman prison to be their prefect. But Julius Civilis is not the loyal servant of empire that he seems.

Devil: The Leopards of Normandy, Book 1

William the Conqueror as you've never seen him before--the Leopards of Normandy trilogy will tell his story in all its wild, intoxicating, unfailingly dramatic glory. David Churchill does for William what blockbuster TV series The Tudors did for Henry VIII. The devil and his bastard son.... Robert of Normandy is handsome, brave and impetuous--and has just seized Normandy's mightiest castle. But his older brother, Richard, the duke of Normandy, wants it back...and will take it by force if need be.

London

A wonderful, epic story that tells the history of the greatest city in the world, from Roman times to the present day. From the author of
Paris,
Sarum and
New York. London has perhaps the most remarkable history of any city in the world. Now its story has a unique voice. In this epic novel, Edward Rutherfurd takes the listener on a magnificent journey across 16 centuries.

Swords Around the Throne: Twilight of Empire, Book 2

Rewarded for saving the emperor's life in battle, centurion Aurelius Castus is promoted to the Corps of Protectores, the elite imperial bodyguard, the swords around the throne. But he soon discovers the court to be just as hazardous as the battlefield; behind the gilded facade of empire, there are spiralling plots, murderous betrayals and dangerous seductions. And one relentless enemy.

The Society of the Sword Trilogy

When Soren is plucked from the streets and given a place at the prestigious academy of swordsmanship, he thinks his dream of being a great swordsman has become a possibility. However, with great intrigues unfolding all around him, Soren discovers that he is little more than a pawn to the ambitions of others.

War at the Edge of the World

Once a soldier in an elite legion from the Danube, Aurelius Castus believes his glory days are over, stuck in Britain's provincial backwater. But history is about to take a hand and when the king of the Picts, the savage people beyond Hadrian's Wall, dies in mysterious circumstances, Castus is selected to command the bodyguard of a Roman envoy sent to negotiate with the barbarians. But the diplomatic mission ends in bloody tragedy…

Publisher's Summary

AD 852. For centuries the Vikings have swept out of the Norse countries and fallen on whatever lands they could reach aboard their longships, and few could resist the power of their violent onslaught. They came at first to plunder and then to settle, an encroachment fiercely resisted wherever they went.

Such was the case in the southern lands of Ireland. En route to the Viking longphort there, known as Dubh-linn, Thorgrim Night Wolf and Ornolf the Restless stumble across an Irish ship that carries aboard it a single item: a crown. The Vikings eagerly snatch the prize, unaware of its significance to the people of Ireland and the power granted to the king who wears it. Soon the Norsemen are plunged into the violence and intrigue of Medieval Ireland, where local kings fight with each other and with the invaders from the north for rule of the island nation. With enemies at every hand and loyalties as fickle as the weather, Thorgrim must lead his men, the white invaders, the Fin Gall, in the fight of their lives, with both Irish and Dane eager to see them dead.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I couldnt get passed 20 minutes . weirdly at the end of every sentence the narrator sounded like he was touching himself ... Even weirder was the narrators voice acting wasnt bad .. whenever he spoke as a character it was ok but as soon as he went back to the narrators voice he put on a weird pervy voice

Would you be willing to try another one of Shaun Grindell’s performances?

No

What character would you cut from Fin Gall - A Novel of Viking Age Ireland?

the narrator

Any additional comments?

It actually sounded like the story may have been ok .. I couldnt forgive the poor perfomance of the narrator though

The story is good, not great, but good enough that I've bought the second in series. Narrator is intolerably slow however, not bad, just slow---so I used a trick I read in another audible review and upped the narration speed to 1.25 and it's great! Historically interesting about the Vikings in Ireland as well as Irish history.

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

Jen

Los Angeles

15/12/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Hard to hear"

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I didn't listen to the entire book. The narration was really bad. So no the short time I spend listening to this was not time well spent.

The story seems interesting. I think I'll use my eyes to enjoy it however.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

stuart

16/08/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Not bad"

Overall not a bad book and well researched but the narrator has the Vikings as cockneys and his Irish accents are diabolical... And his pronunciation of Irish names is even worse, they're so badly done that even as an Irish-speaker I can't recognize them!

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

John

Lampasas, TX, United States

07/04/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Great Story"

Would you listen to Fin Gall - A Novel of Viking Age Ireland again? Why?

Maybe

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

I didn't much care for the narration. It was done in almost a whisper and did not seem to change with the action. It is a good thing the story itself was exciting. Otherwise, I would have stopped listening in the first 10 minutes.

Any additional comments?

I am a huge fan of Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Tales. When I first saw this book I wondered how it would stack up against Cornwell. I can tell you that, while it does stand on its own, if you love Saxon Tales, you will love this book.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

Paul Harris

Grants Pass, OR

21/01/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Well done historical period piece- lots of twists"

Good book...seemed to be accurate and the plot was well thought out. Almost like a mystery novel, in some respects.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

B. Dillon

Dallas, Texas

26/02/18

Overall

Performance

Story

"I enjoyed it so much! I couldn't stop listening.!!"

The book was very exciting and full of Adventure. I enjoyed listening to it so much and I hope there are more in the series in audio books.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Laura S. Coraci

02/01/18

Overall

Performance

Story

"Great Book, poor performance"

Any additional comments?

Another reviewer recommended listening to the book and 1.25 narration speed. It was the only tolerable way to get through it.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Margaret Wood

USA

17/10/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Wonderfully Told Viking Story..."

Shaun Grindell brought this book to life with his passionate narration - the characters are colorful, and through them you experience a great tale of Vikings, Irish and Dane conflict on the high seas. The storyline of the Crown of the Three Kingdoms, while fictitious, , is brilliantly set against real landscapes and other real events.

James Nelson has captured the true colors of the VIkings, having us experience their love for family and their hate for their enemies in a bloody battle for the sake of their own. Highly recommend - this is Viking folklore at its best.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Levictus

29/07/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"loved it"

suspense, battle and trickery. loved it from beginning to end great book all around. two thumbs

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Dr. Donald N. Sweet

Portsmouth, NH United States

23/06/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Excellent historical fiction"

Enjoyed the numerous twist and turns of the story. I appreciated the quotes at the beginning of every chapter. They have taken me to some other interesting texts. I've learned more about the high kings of Ireland and their supporters as a result of Mr. Nelson's book. I usually judge a book by how many other stories and text it leads me too. In that respect Fin Gall gets the highest of marks.

If you enjoy Irish and/or Norse history I highly recommend Fin Gall.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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